Opening soon: Check out the unique neighborhood haunted house and cemetery Helena residents built for Halloween

Published 5:20 pm Wednesday, October 23, 2019

By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

HELENA – Tucked away in the friendly Helena neighborhood of Hillsboro lies a unique Halloween attraction that’s sure to bring out plenty of frights, thanks to the hard work of two neighbors who have brought back their house of horror and cemetery for a fourth year.

Officially known as the “Sunbury Cemetery House of Horror,” The families of Vinny Ciccazzo and Austin Hood teamed up to construct a Halloween attraction that’s free of charge and good for adults and children of all ages.

Using their own resources, Ciccazzo and Hood constructed a variety of outside haunted house rooms with different themes including a witch room, a spider room, a deadly dolls room, a talking mirror, a reaper room, a ghost room, a butcher room, a serial killer room, a scarecrow area, spooky singing pumpkins, actors and the newly added laser vortex room.

“The laser vortex room is completely new this year,” Ciccazzo said. “I’ve got a laser beam and it shoots a big green laser tunnel and it’s all fogged in, so it looks like you’re walking through a tunnel and you can’t see anything until you get inside. I think it turned out really cool.”

Working to construct the rooms during the heat of summer for roughly two months prior to Halloween, Ciccazzo said the whole motive for doing the work is for people to have a good time and enjoy themselves.

“The biggest thing is we just do it because we want everyone to come out and have a good time,” Ciccazzo said. “It’s Halloween, it’s fun for us and it’s fun for them. We do try to get donations to help cover the costs so we can do it again every year but it’s basically free. We want people to share it, talk about it and get more and more people to come.”

In addition to the main cemetery and haunted house, the neighbors constructed a separate walk-thru designed just for small children.

“This year we also added an area for little kids with nothing scary for children six and under if they don’t want to go through the big one,” Ciccazzo said.

This year, Sunbury Cemetery House of Horrow will be open on Friday, Oct. 25, Saturday, Oct. 26 and on Halloween night from 6:30-9:30 p.m.

Ciccazzo emphasized that parking is limited and for visitors to drive slow and look out for trick-or-treaters on the night of Halloween. Additional parking is available at the Hillsboro pool area.

Sunbury gets its name from the location of the attraction, which is located at 105 Sunbury Terrace in Hillsboro.

Directions to the haunted house are as follows:

Turn into the Hillsboro subdivision off Shelby County 52. Go to the stop sign. Go straight on Appleford Road until the next stop sign. Take a right onto Ashleigh Road. Go to the stop sign and take a left on Appleford Road. Take the first left onto Sunbury Terrace. Hillsboro is a sidewalk neighborhood with easy walking access from designated parking areas at the entrance, pool and vacant lots nearby.

“We’re just trying to get bigger every year and we always add on,” Ciccazzo added. “Normally we always build out of wood, but this year we converted to PVC and it was a big investment, but it was worth it and we can reuse it every year.”

For more information on the Sunbury Cemetery House of Horrow, visit the Facebook page at Facebook.com/Sunbury-Cemetery-House-of-Horror-115596169836099/.